The Little Seapony
by PumpkinPixie91
Summary: Deep in the oceans of Equestria lies the kingdom of Aquastria. It was once joyful, but is now full of sadness and misery. Cut off from the world above, most seaponies believe that things will never change. The youngest daughter of the sea king, however, can't help but wonder if there isn't more to life than unhappiness.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So this is just a little side project I'm working on in addition to my main story. I don't have any writing schedule in mind, so I'll just be adding chapters as I write them. This story is based mostly off the original story, but I have added a few things from the Disney version as well as some things of my own. If you have never read the original story, then you should because it is absolutely beautiful. Just thought I'd let you know. Anyhoo, enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: My Little Pony and The Little Mermaid do not belong to me. They belong to Hans Christian Anderson and Hasbro.

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Far out in the ocean where the water is as blue as the petals of the finest cornflower and as transparent as the purest glass, within the deepest depths of the sea, there lived a very peculiar pony known to ponykind as seaponies. They are ruled in judicious grace by King Igneous, the most benevolent king to ever live under Equastria's seas. For many years, he lived in a grand castle in the deepest part of the ocean with his four daughters and lovely wife, Queen Cloudy Quartz. She was a kind mare with bright blue eyes and long blue-gray hair that she wore up in an elegant bun. At times she would journey with her husband to the surface where they would often have trade and diplomatic meetings with the nearby kingdom of Equestria. During one such trip, however, the Queen was killed by a wicked sailor. Angry and heartbroken at the loss of his beloved queen, King Igneous isolated himself in his castle and cursed the land that had stolen his love away from him. All travel and communication between the undersea kingdom of Aquastria and the landponies in Equestria was forbidden, and the once happy kingdom fell into a gray darkness. For many years, almost nopony smiled and laughter was something of a forgotten past that the youngest seaponies had never heard and the oldest ponies could only distantly recall. The King's daughters especially were very young when the queen died and so were taught for much of their lives to hate landponies and all that they did. They were forbidden to ever go to the surface, lest they be seen by a passing sailor and captured, never to return to the sea again just like their dear, dear mother. Being the obedient children that they were, they obeyed their father without question. All save for one daughter, that is.

The youngest daughter, Pinkamena Diane Pie, was not like her older sisters. While they were calm and docile, completely content with their lives the way they were, Pinkamena, or Pinkie as she was often called, couldn't help but wonder if there was more to life than the gray, dull existences that the seaponies now lived. As a child, she would often go to see her Nana Pinkie who lived on the outskirts of the kingdom. She would tell her tales of the kingdom before the Queen's disappearance, when seaponies would often go to the coasts of Equestria and visit the landponies there. She told her of creatures called birds that would sing lovely tunes in the large coral-like plants called trees and how, when the sun set in the sky at night, the sky would be painted with the deepest purples, oranges, and even pinks. The thing she most loved to hear about, however, was the grand parties that would be held to celebrate such small things such as birthdays and even sometimes to welcome a new pony into a town. During such parties there would be music, dancing, games, food, and, best of all, laughter.

Pinkie had never heard laughter before, but her Nana Pinkie told her it was one of the most wonderful sounds in the world. It was the sound of pure joy that ponies made when they were filled to the brim with happiness. Pinkie wanted nothing more than to hear a pony laugh. On the day that her eldest sister Maud was to turn nineteen, she built up the courage to throw something her Nana Pinkie had told her was called a surprise birthday party. While the rest of her family was busy at court, Pinkie snuck away to the castle ballroom. No balls or any other parties of any kind were ever held there anymore, but her Nana Pinkie assured her that at one time parties were held there almost weekly. She looked around the once brightly colored coral pillars and marble dance floor that she had been told had come from the land above long ago. Pinkie could almost feel the happiness this room had once brought to ponies, and despite the fact that the decorations and furnishings had now all turned gray and dull from lack of use, she knew that this room could bring happiness to ponies once again.

She knew her sister was fond of rocks, so Pinkie swam out to the garden and the nearby kelp forest to find rocks of every shape and color one could fathom. There were little blue rocks and big pink rocks, quartz and sandstone, dark black obsidian and the most delicate of crystals. She decorated the ballroom with the rocks, placing them on tables and chairs made of coral and stone. She was even able to convince a local musician to play at the party and the royal chef to cook Maud's favorite meal. By sunset, everything was ready. She approached her family just as they were closing court for the day with a large smile on her face.

Already her father was suspicious. Although his youngest daughter was the one most prone to foolish flights of fancy and more likely to smile than others in his kingdom, a smile that large was still a very, very rare thing. After all, without the Queen, what was there to smile about? Nothing in his opinion. The sooner Pinkie realized this the better off she would be. She needed to know the truth of life as a dull dreary place full of unhappiness and loss. He and his other daughters followed Pinkie at her behest. As they drew nearer and nearer to the ballroom, he grew more and more worried.

"Oh you guys are gonna love it! I just know it!" Pinkie said as she threw open the doors to the ballroom. "Happy Birthday Maud!" Bright, bold, colorful rocks and lively music filled every corner of the room. A table with every decadent dessert one could think of stood against one the walls. Pinkie stood in the middle of it all, waiting anxiously for her family's reaction. For a moment, no one did anything but stare, but then her sisters' lips began to twitch. Pinkie held her breath. The twitching turned into an awkward grimace and might have twitched all the way up into a smile if it was not for her father.

After getting over his initial shock at seeing what was obviously a party (one thrown by his daughter no less!) he immediately narrowed his eyes at the small hopeful seapony before him. "Pinkamena Diane Pie! What is the meaning of this?" he growled. The music stopped abruptly and the musician quietly slunk out a nearby window. He knew this hadn't been a good idea. Best to duck out now while he still could.

Pinkie flinched at the king's tone. "It's a party Daddy."

"I can see that," the King said. "What I want to know is why you thought it would be a good idea to throw a party?"

"I thought it would be fun," Pinkie said softly.

"Fun!" King Igneous shouted. "I knew that those stories mother told you would one day lead to no good. This kingdom and especially this family has no use for fun! Fun is merely used as a foolish distraction from the atrocities of life. It helps nothing. It fixes nothing. It is worthless. Fun leads to smiling and laughter. It makes you think that maybe life isn't so bad, but we know the truth Pinkamena! Life is nothing but hardship and strife. Everything else is a lie. It is about time you realize that and move on from this foolish fixation you have with happiness. True happiness does not exist in this world!"

Pinkie glared at him. "You were happy when you were with Mom. Nana Pinkie told me! She said she had never seen a happier pony in all her life than when she saw you with her. Can you really tell me that what you felt back then wasn't true happiness?"

"How dare you bring her into this! I thought I was happy then, true, but whatever I had felt back then was quickly stripped away from me when your mother died. I realized the truth then. It's about time you did too. You're sixteen now. You need to grow up and stop living a fantasy."

Pinkie's lower lip trembled and she felt her throat tighten. Unable to face her father anymore, she swam out a nearby window. She didn't know where she was going, but neither did she care. She passed the garden and the kelp forest where she had carefully gathered the rocks for the party. Soon she had gone farther than she ever had before. She didn't stop until her fin was too tired to move and the night was so deep that the ocean was too dark to see. She lowered herself to the seafloor and huddled into a ball, but she did not cry, for seaponies cannot cry, which makes their suffering all the more unbearable.


	2. Chapter 2

Unbeknownst to Pinkie in her state of wretchedness, she had drifted into the territory of the wicked seawitch, Chrysalis. "Well, well, well," said a voice in the darkness. "What have we here? A dear little party pony with no place to throw a party. How dreadful!" Pinkie sat up with a start and looked about her, but could only see the blackness of night.

"Who's there?" she asked bravely.

The voice came closer. "A friend. Someone who wants nothing more than to help you. Don't you want help?"

"Help with what?" Pinkie squinted at the darkness, but could still see nothing.

"Why help getting to the surface world of course! Isn't that what you want?"

"Why would I want to go to the surface world?"

"Just think of it my dear little seapony. If you lived on the surface, your father would have no control over you. You would be free from this dull, gray prison and be able to throw parties wherever and whenever you like. You may even, dare I even say it, make other ponies laugh. I happen to know that you would do almost anything to hear a pony laugh. Isn't that right?"

Pinkie's skin broke out in goosebumps at the voice's words. "H-how do you know all this? I've never told anypony that before."

"Oh I have my ways," the voice said dismissively. "The question here is if you want help getting to the surface world or not. The choice is yours my dear."

Despite her fear, Pinkie thought seriously about what the voice had said. She, for Pinkie was fairly certain the voice was female, was right. Pinkie was tired of being unhappy and sad all the time and of seeing everypony else unhappy too. She wanted to bring joy and laughter into ponies' lives, and if she couldn't do it under the sea, then she would go to the surface and do it. "Alright," she said after a moment. "I want help."

A bright, eerie green light suddenly lit up the strange clearing she had found herself in. It was filled with the bones of shipwrecked landponies and strange polypes, creatures that were half animal, half plant that reached out and grabbed hungrily at everything that passed by them. Pinkie shivered at the sight. She had no idea she had wandered into such a ghastly place. "Wonderful!" Said the voice and a dark gray seapony with slitted eyes, cobweb like hair, and a long horn swam in front of her. The seapony smiled kindly, showing two rows of sharp fangs.

"Are you," Pinkie swallowed nervously. "Are you Chrysalis? The seawitch?"

"The one and only," the witch said. "But don't worry about all those scary stories you've heard about me from your dear old father. None of them are true. He also told you that landponies and parties were bad too, remember? And you know that's not true! I'm being honest when I say that I only want to help. You want to go to the surface do you not?"

"I do," Pinkie said hesitantly.

"Then let me help!" insisted Chrysalis. "There is only one way to become a landpony, and that is to convince a landpony to fall in love with you. If you do that, then the power of your love will imbue your body with magic and allow you to stay a landpony for all your days."

Pinkie's brows furrowed. "Well how am I supposed to that? All communication between Aquastria and Equestria is forbidden! I would be imprisoned or worse if my father ever caught me speaking to a landpony!"

"Yes, that is true, however I have a spell that will allow you to be a landpony for three days." Chrysalis's expression turned serious. "I must warn you, though, that this spell does have certain unpleasant side effects."

"Side effects?"

"Yes. The spell will split your tail in two and give you two hind legs that you will use to walk on dry land. This process will be very painful for you. It will feel as if a sword has sliced your tail in two. This pain will fade with time, of course, but for the first day especially, it will be almost unbearable. Also, the spell is only one way. It will turn you into a landpony, but you will never be able to be a seapony again. This world and everything in it, will be lost to you forever. At sunset on the third day, if no pony has fallen in love with you, you will die. Are you willing to accept these terms?"

Pinkie blanched. Her tail would be painfully sliced in two? If she didn't get somepony to fall in love with her in three days she would die? "Those are pretty harsh terms," she said.

"Sadly these are the only terms I can give to you," Chrysalis said.

"Then," Pinkie said after thinking for a moment, "I suppose I agree to them. It's not like I can stay here. Not after what happened today."

"Oh good! One more thing," Chrysalis smiled. "This is a very difficult spell and I am going to need payment for it."

"Payment? But I thought you wanted to help me?" Pinkie asked.

"Oh I do, my sweet, I do, but all magic comes with a price," Chrysalis explained. "This is mine. Don't worry, it's nothing too big. All I need from you is your voice. Nothing big at all!"

"My voice!" Pinkie shouted. "How is that not a big thing? How am I going to make ponies laugh let alone fall in love with me if I can't even talk?"

"Oh! Talking is overrated!" Chrysalis said. "People talk down here talk all the time and you never see them smiling and laughing. As for love, well, you'll have your bright blue eyes and beautiful pink fur. Somepony will fall for you! I wouldn't worry about it. So do we have a deal?"

"I-I guess so," she said uncertainly.

"Perfect," she seawitch purred. Her horn lit with a sickly black-green aura that quickly surrounded Pinkie. A sharp pain, the like of which Pinkie had never felt before pierced her scaly pink fin as her tail split into furry pink hind legs. She tried to scream, but found she couldn't as Chrysalis had already taken her voice away. Realizing she only had a few moments to reach the surface before her new landpony body would need to breathe, she ignored the pain swam with all her might towards the faint glow of the moon above.


	3. Chapter 3

The kingdom of Equestria is ruled equally by three distinguished dignitaries. The kind and wise Princess Celestia rules the day. The noble and strict Princess Luna rules the night. And last, but not in any way least, Prince Discord rules over something very peculiar indeed. He rules over chaos. Now, you may think that chaos can't be ruled over. It is chaos after all – untameable and unpredictable. However, Discord is also a very untamable and unpredictable type of pony. For one thing, he isn't a pony. He is a legendary draconequus. It is his duty to travel the kingdom, making sure that there is enough chaos in every pony's life to allow them to grow and learn, but not so much that they became overwhelmed.

The kingdom was not always like this. Indeed, Discord used to be quite a handful for the two sisters to handle. Although he wanted to do well, he was often bored with his duties, and when Discord got bored he tended to add quite a bit more chaos to the lives of the ponies than was necessary. Most of the time it was small things that, although annoying for the ponies involved, usually didn't cause any lasting harm. The one exception to that was when he decided it would be fun to convince a certain stallion that he was a bold knight on a quest from the princesses to save a fair mare from a wicked dragon. Unfortunately, the nearest dragon lived in a library and was a much respected citizen of Equestria with nary an unkind word to be said of him. The fool stallion's addled mind, however, quickly turned this mild mannered dragon into a ferocious, fire-breathing monster who lived not by eating jewels like most dragons, but on ponyflesh! The head librarian, who was a studious no nonsense purple mare that would never dream of being a damsel in distress, suddenly became the fair mare that the dragon had kidnapped. This eventually led to several ponies being injured by the stallion saying they were "cohorts of the monster!" (not to mention the dragon, himself, who had to go to the hospital for severe puncture wounds) and a burned down library.

Although Discord had found this to be extremely entertaining, the other ponies disagreed with him. Not least of whom was Princess Celestia, who was in charge of Discord. "Dealing with chaos is a privilege," Celestia told him. "You should be grateful I haven't imprisoned you in stone by now with the way you go about terrorizing ponies! That is not what your position is for! As punishment I am stripping you of your powers and sending you to Ponyshell Island until you learn that ponies are not there merely for you to entertain yourself with. They have emotions and desires that you need to respect." She forced a magic dampening arm cuff on him that only she could take off and then teleported him to the edge of a very small, very boring island town.

The first thing he had to deal with when he arrived on the island was how he was going to get food. No longer could he simply conjure up food whenever he was hungry. He thought of getting a job, but he soon discovered that that was nearly impossible. Nopony wanted to hire the infamous banished draconquues even if his powers were gone. They didn't believe that he could be trusted. Discord thought they were probably right. Having a job meant a strict schedule and hard work, and he wasn't good at either of those things. In order to earn money for food, he had to resort to collecting the pony shaped seashells the Island was famous for and selling them in town. This didn't earn him much, but it was enough to get by on. Eventually he saved enough to buy a fishing rod and he started selling fish in town too. The fish he caught, however, were always shaped funny for some reason and had a strange smell to them so not many ponies bought them. He didn't see why not. They might look weird, but they still tasted delicious.

Finding a place to live was also difficult. Although he eventually earned enough money that he could afford rent on a room, nopony wanted to lease one to him. He was forced to live in a cave on a beach outside of town. He didn't really mind. The cave was dry and cool, and he was away from all those annoying, prejudice ponies. Once a bit of furniture was added to it, it became quite homey, indeed. He could survive a few days here, he thought. At least until Princess Celestia cooled off and allowed him to come back to the castle. She was never one to stay angry long, so he just had to wait until she came to get him.

Days turned into weeks, and Princess Celestia never came. Without his magic Discord became very bored and very frustrated. It was the same thing every day. Wake up. Collect seashells. Fish. Eat. Sleep. It was driving him insane. He was also, although he would never admit it, very lonely. He would go to town once a week to sell his wares and buy groceries, but besides polite business conversation, nopony would ever talk to him. Although he had never really had any friends per se, he at least had the Princesses to talk to. Not to mention, he was starting to get really tired of eating fish. Princess Celestia must have been very angry with him. He needed to find a way to get back into her good graces.

While he pondered all of this sitting on a rock on what he called the front porch of his cave, a very pink pony washed up onto shore. Curious, he walked over to the mare and nudged her with his foot. She didn't move. Was she dead? He wondered. He reached down and turned her over so that she was facing him and realized she was still breathing, just unconscious. He had never seen her in town. She was so very pink he felt that he would have remembered her if he had. She must have come from far away, Discord reasoned. That island was the only land for hundreds of miles. Not knowing what else to do, he picked her up and brought her into his cave.


	4. Chapter 4

A few hours later, Pinkie Pie awoke in a very strange, very dry cave. For a moment, she panicked. She had never been out of water before. What if she couldn't breathe? Where were her gills? She sat up suddenly and realized she was on some sort of cushiony couch. She looked around and saw a firepit in the middle of the cavern shed that shed light on haphazardly placed, brightly colored furniture. Fire. There was no fire under the sea, but she had seen pictures of it. Suddenly, everything came back to her. Her conversation with the seawitch. The mad swim to the surface. She removed the blanket that was covering her, and looked down at her newly formed hind legs and fluffy landpony tail. She wiggled her legs experimentally, and then winced at the pain. Right. The seawitch did say her hind legs would hurt the first day. Ah well. She'd deal with it. She was good with pain. It would be worth it after all, if she could hear a pony laugh.

"Weeelllll hell-_o_, my little pony!" said a voice from behind her. Pinkie turned, and then moved quickly away from the serpentine mismatched monster that had just walked into the cave. "Oh don't be like that," said the draconequus. "I did save your life after all. Found you this morning lying unconscious in the sand like a beached whale, if whales were small, pink, and pony-shaped." He smiled and Pinkie relaxed a tiny bit. "Are you hungry? Do you want some fish stew?" Pinkie's eyes grew wide and she vigorously shook her head. Seaponies didn't eat fish, and she sincerely hoped landponies didn't either. "No? Well, I might have a carrot or something lying around," Discord opened a pantry and began tossing out miscellaneous objects. You and I would have recognized pots, pans, a bright red floppy disk, an easel, and even a gramophone as they flew across the room, but Pinkie, being a seapony and never having had a need for such things before, hadn't the faintest idea what any of them were. She walked clumsily up to the gramophone (ignoring the pain in her newly formed back legs), and was suddenly seized by the desire to look inside it. "Ah! Here's something! How do you feel about bananas?" He asked poking his head out of the cupboard only to see Pinkie's flank sticking out of the gramophone horn. She kicked her back legs, helplessly stuck. Discord chuckled softly. "Here let me help," he said. He grabbed hold of her legs and gave a mighty tug until she popped out of the horn and landed on top of him. Pinkie noticed that he was much softer than he looked. That, and the fact that he had helped her instead of gobbling her up on the spot, made her much less frightened of the beast. She smiled at him as way of thanks.

"Yes, yes you're welcome, now please GET OFF ME!" Discord pushed her onto the floor. "I do not enjoy being sit upon by ponies." He walked over to the cupboard and handed her a banana. "Here. It's all I could find." Pinkie licked the banana experimentally.

"Now my dear –" Discord began, but then stopped suddenly. Wide-eyed, he watched Pinkie eat the banana, peel and all, in one single gulp. "Er…Where are you from?" He finished a little lamely.

Pinkie brightened and opened her mouth to speak, but then frowned when nothing came out. "What? Do you not remember?" Discord asked. Pinkie shook her head. "So you do remember," Discord said. Pinkie nodded. "You just can't tell me," Discord guessed. Pinkie nodded again. "Hmmm…well that's interesting…and annoying. Can you write it down or something? Oh. I don't have any paper. That won't work." While Discord thought, Pinkie made pictures on the cave's sandy floor. Wait, she thought. Sand. Pictures. I_de_a!

She drew a picture of herself as a sad seapony, the seawitch grinning wickedly, and then a picture of herself growing legs. After she was done, she poked Discord and pointed at the drawings. He scratched his head. "Er…yes, um, very nice pictures. Are those fish? What is that bulbous growth on this one?" He pointed to the fluffy hair Pinkie had drawn on her seapony self. She frowned. "And why does that fish have a stick embedded in its head?" He gestured to the seawitch's horn. Pinkie only pointed at the pictures again in reply. "So they're not fish?" Discord asked. Pinkie shook her head. "Right. I knew that! They're obviously…" he scrunched up his face in concentration. He looked at the last drawing's squiggily limbs. "Um…s-" Pinkie looked up at him expectantly. "-squid?" Pinkie's face fell. "Really, really deformed squid?" he said hopefully. Pinkie sighed and shook her head.

Discord rolled his eyes. "Well whatever." He plopped onto an armchair and crossed his arms. "It's not my fault you can't draw!"

After thinking for a moment, Pinkie went outside and came back with a rather large, very much alive fish. Discord raised an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't like fi – oh dear Celestia! What are you doing?" Pinkie had jumped, back feet first, into the fish's mouth and pulled it up to her middle. She flipped her new 'tail' at Discord happily. "Erm…you got eaten by a fish?"

Pinkie facehoofed. "Oh wait! I know! You're a seapony!" Discord suddenly cried. Pinkie nodded emphatically. "Oh what joy! A seapony of my very own!" He grabbed Pinkie and twirled her around in his excitement. The fish squelched off of her and landed on the floor where it flailed about helplessly. "Wait," Discord said, stopping midtwirl. "If you were really a seapony, then why are you a landpony now?"

Pinkie wiggled out of his grasp and pointed at the last drawing. Discord thought for a moment. "You were turned into a landpony?" Pinkie nodded. She wrote 3 days into the sand next to the drawing. "You're a landpony for three days?" Pinkie drew a heart. "To…er…find love? That might be a bit difficult for you my dear. What happens if you don't?" Pinkie drew a gravestone. "What? You die?!" Discord cried, outraged. "What kind of children's story is this?! Hans Christian Ander – oooh, I get it." Discord laid on his stomach so he was eyelevel with Pinkie. "Tell you what, my dear. I think we can help one another." He poked her snout. "You need to find a very special somepony. I need get Celestia off my back so I can get off this chaos-forsaken island. I can provide you with lodging and, as the master of love that I am, I can get you the pony of your dreams. All I ask for in return is that you tell…or, er, gesture to Princess Celestia about what a reformed and honorable citizen I am." He put his claw out for her to shake. "Do we have a deal?" Pinkie thought for a moment. Trusting this weird creature might be the most terrible mistake of her life. Then again, she didn't have many other options at the moment. She shook his claw.

Discord jumped up in joy. "Huzza! Let's go to town and find you a stallionfriend! Or marefriend. Are you into mares? No? Alright." He picked her up, and was about to let her ride on his shoulders so they could get to town faster, when he suddenly got a good whiff of her. His skin turned green. "First, you might want to bathe. You smell like fish."

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A/N: For those of you who don't know, Hans Christian Anderson has several stories that end in the main character's death. Think "The Little Match Girl."


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